The Vancouver Canucks took game three against the Edmonton Oilers 4-3 in a gutsy performance.
Head Coach Rick Tocchet thought the defence did a solid job and mentioned Artūrs Šilovs helped them pull out a big win tonight.
“They made a push, and we did a nice job there at the end, made the most of our chances. Power play was good, PK did a great job in the third, got to give them a lot of credit. I mean that power play’s as good as I’ve ever seen, it's dynamite. So I give them a lot of credit. It was it was a grinding game, we had to grind this win out,” Tocchet said.
“The kid’s [Šilovs] giving us games. It’s a big stage and he’s not blinking. He’s coming every day and he’s working hard. He’s working with Clarkie a lot on off days.”
Artūrs Šilovs backstopped the Canucks, stopping a career-high 42 of 45 shots he faced. The 23-year-old goaltender said he’s trusting the system, working with the goalie coach and managing his game.
“I felt confident. The guys got my back on game one, so I had to have them [their back] today and everyone’s resilient, blocking shots. Really high scoring chances they had, our guys managed to block a lot of them, so that’s a big credit for them too,” Šilovs said.
“It’s so nice to play in a hostile place, especially winning away games are so important. It’s just fun to win these kind of games,” Šilovs said.
The Canucks blocked 23 shots and served up 50 hits on the night.
On special teams, Vancouver was two for three on the power play and two for four on the penalty kill.
Boeser, J.T. Miller and Pius Suter matched up against the Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, and Zach Hyman line as they did in game two, and the Canucks’ top line helped hold their Oilers’ counterparts to one goal and one assists from Draisaitl.
Brock Boeser had two goals and one assist for a three-point night, while Miller had two assists and Suter chipped in an assist.
“I feel pretty confident. I think it just comes with trying to play the right way and really just focusing on the little details in our structure. I'm just trying to do anything I can to help our team win and it's always nice when the goal is go in,” Boeser said.
Game Summary
Mattias Ekholm scored on the power play for the Oilers, but the Canucks answered swiftly with a power play goal of their own. Elias Lindholm tipped in Brock Boeser’s shot from the point.
